I used to live in Texas. I’m well aware of how busterish the state can react towards anything that doesn’t support Christianity, highschool football or the glorification of brisket BBQ in some form. If only Scott Coker would have convinced the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation that their Strikeforce four-man middleweight tournament would have been some reenactment of the biblical passage from John 18:36, then maybe it would have flown under the radar. MMAFighting broke the news that the four-man tournament (which originally consisted of Matt Lindland, Jacare Souza, Tim Kennedy and Robbie Lawler) falls under a state code that prevented ‘Tough Man’ tournaments from going down in Texas after 2001.
“They asked if it was possible and I told them that when Tough Man was outlawed, the state also did away with tournaments back in 2001.”
Sec. 2052.254 of Texas’ Combative Sports Occupations Code specifically deals with tournaments. The code states: “An elimination tournament may not be conducted in this state.”
Over the weekend, Strikeforce announced the middleweight tournament we all salivated over was replaced by a single middleweight bout with Jacare vs. Kennedy fighting for the vacant Strikeforce middleweight bling. The bout will go down next month in the humid city of Houston which is the equivalent of a mosquito refugee camp around this time of the year. [Source]
